Description – This is a workbook with various questions to evaluate a contractors project controls process and systems for Estimating, Reporting, Change Management, Progress Measurement, Cost Control, Planning, Schedule Control and Document Control
1) Purpose: This tool allows the reviewers to ask standard questions across multiple suppliers to gauge their expertise around project controls.
2) Design / Methodology / Approach: We recognized that we had no standard basis for evaluating our project controls suppliers, and as an owner, we wanted to have a standard format that could be used by anyone within our group to evaluate our design and construction partners expertise in project controls.
3) Findings and Value: This tool provides a consistent process in obtaining an assessment of a contractors project controls skills, and has allowed us to find weak spots in some organizations project controls processes and take corrective action early to mitigate the gaps.
4) Research Limitations / Implications: This has been used since 2004 with A/E and construction companies globally.
5) Practical Use / Implications: This should be used during a visit to the organizations office, and generally takes a full day to perform. It is recommended to provide the firm with an agenda that defines some of the information to be reviewed (procedures, best practices, sample documents and review of any computer based system.
6) Originality / Value: This was a collaborative effort with Jon Pitcher (retired).
7) Conclusions: This tool continues to assist our organization in finding deficiencies within our contractors project controls processes, which we supplement with third party personnel or via implementation of our own methods.